BOOM!

They say you learn something new every day. Well, here’s what I learned tonight:

  1. you can sit too close to a fireworks display

  2. you can sleep through a fireworks display

  3. you cannot explain a fireworks display

                The reason we spent this weekend in Annecy was because today is the annual fete du lac… which includes a giant fireworks show. We had no idea how giant until we saw it.

                Bill bought our tickets for the fireworks online. We were in the third row. That was good because a lot of the show involved ground displays… or in this case lake displays. That wasn’t so good because about halfway through the show we realized that we were being pelted by tiny bits of ash from the falling fireworks. It also wasn’t so good because it meant that the fireworks were especially loud. Kaitlyn doesn’t like loud. (which is funny, for such a loud person)

                She was so looking forward to seeing the display. When it started she crawled on my lap to make it easier for me to cover her ears. But not long after, she said she was ready to go back to the hotel. We couldn’t just leave. For one thing, I think that the announcement as the show started was telling us all to stay in our seats for safety. Of course, the announcement was in French so I can only guess. (The announcement thanking the sponsors was given in four languages. The one that seemed to concern personal safety… only in French.) She finally moved to Bill’s lap and while he covered her ears she covered her eyes… and actually fell asleep. It wasn’t the soundest slumber, but there was some definite dozing going on.

                    That seemed especially amazing given the scope of the show. The designer (is that what you call it?) is apparently quite a big name in fireworks displays… he’s done shows for the Olympics. I read that in the program. He orchestrated the most odd and amazing fireworks show I’ve ever seen. Odd because it went on for about 15 minutes without any fireworks. Just lasers. Odd because every so often the announcer would read a poem (in French). The poems were also in the program and about halfway through I realized that was the gibberish interrupting the program. Amazing because I’ve never actually seen a fireworks display match the music it was set to. Normally music is played but it’s just noise to accompany the noise. This one was unbelievable. The pace of the music was all over the place… from the Mission Impossible theme to Celine Dion to classical music to dance music to Some Day My Prince Will Come. And the fireworks matched it all. Amazing because of the sheer number of fireworks used. At one point in the show, I turned to Bill and said “how will we know it’s the finale?” Because the display for each song was as huge as what we’re used to being the finale. Well, when it was the end, there was no questioning it. The finale probably used as many fireworks as the town of Cary uses for its entire July 4th show. Sometimes the sky was so bright I had to close my eyes. (Kaitlyn’s eyes remained closed while she slept through it all)

                Lastly, you cannot explain a fireworks display. The program tried to. The show was called “tout feu, tout slam.” I was anxious to hear the English translation. “all fire, all slam.” Thanks for nothing. In all four languages of the pre-show announcements, the word slam was simply slam. The program said something about slam being 1980’s music in the United States. But there wasn’t a single 80’s song in the whole show. I’m sure it made perfect sense to someone…. else.

                Whatever Bill paid for the tickets was worth it. And I’m already figuring we need to go back next year.

One Response to “BOOM!”

  1. Todd Hollst says:

    “All Fire- All Slam.” Great name!!!

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